Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/63

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A BLIND FAITH IS NOT FAITH.
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truth, and so apprehend them in the understanding, are in an obscure, yea, in a blind faith concerning things to be believed. And a blind faith is like an eye which can see little or nothing; yea, a blind faith is not faith, but only a persuasion. And whereas such a persuasion is from another, either from some master or preacher, or from the "Word not understood, it is an historical faith which is natural and not spiritual.

Such persons also, inasmuch as they do not see truths, are not willing that the doctrinals of the church should be approached and viewed from any principle of the understanding, but say that they are to be received from a principle of obedience, which is called the obedience of faith; and it is not known whether the things which are received from such blind obedience, be true or false. Neither can such things open the way to heaven; for in heaven nothing is acknowledged as truth except what is seen, that is, understood.

The light of heaven also is such, that, by virtue thereof, truths appear before the understanding of the mind, as objects of the world appear before the sight of the eye. Therefore they in the world who have seen truths no otherwise than from a blind faith, when they are carried into heaven to the angels, see nothing at all, not even the angels there, much less the magnificent things about them. And then also they become stupid as to the understanding, and their eyes are darkened, and so they depart.

It is however to be observed that all those are here

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